LIFESTYLE DISORDERS
It’s been a few decades that, this word has walked into our lives. Couple of years back, as teenagers, we believed in “Live Life King Size” and where on the wheels all the time to rush into an Adult Life. When no one would pester you to eat timely, eat healthy, eat wholesome and all those ‘Grannies Advises’. When we could take our own decisions, earn our own money and eat anything and everything at anytime, anywhere, with anyone.
And with God’s grace or by the Law of Nature the much dreamed adulthood moved in not very late and we rushed into it even faster, to build our own life. In fact, our LIFESTYLE.
CHANGING LIFESTYLES WITH CHANGING TIMES…
Moving in alone! Away from parents and getting a much sought out career. The first few months were real fun, real life, the king size life, then slowly some ‘not so cool’ gut discomforts creeped in. Midnight hunger pangs not letting you to sleep properly.
Back at office the seniors told, “Oh! Dearest one, this is quite a common problem. Just check out with the ‘Doctor Next Door’.”Wow! We have a doctor just the next door. Back at home, visits to the family physician were quite rare. At times toothaches needed an appointment with the dentist.
That first visit to the ‘Doctor Next Door’ was quite hesitating, but somehow I managed to pour out everything and after analyzing things he said, “these are the symptoms of an upset gut and it’s all your lifestyle, that has given a burden to your systems. Anyways, it’s the trend these days, LIFESTYLE DISORDERS.
I was taken aback. After years of struggle withinthose four walls at home, now when life of a free bird has finally arrived, why is he uttering such heartbreaking words!!! Huh! Lifestyle Disorders ? Those couple of words rang at the back of my head, now and then from that moment onwards.
LIFESTYLE – FIRST YOU CHANGE IT, LATER IT CHANGES YOU .
After coming back from the doctor’s place, no one even enquired what the doctor said. And then everything was back to normal within a week. A couple of months passed by. The doctor next door was a friend now, and as the paid visits to him had increased, the number of tiny pearly pebble like things called tablets being gulped down my throat had also increased. An increased blood cholesterol and a marginal hypertension were coming to my life as my latest companies.
Though I was fit and fine and living a life of my own, as long awaited. But there was this something, that couldn’t allow me to sleep peacefully. My off work times were now consumed by loads of ‘healthy living- wholesome diet videos and write ups’. It was during these new times of expanding my horizons about diet and lifestyle that I got connected to a practitioner of Ayurveda – The Ancient Medical Science of India and now actually of the entire world. I had become a follower of hers through the informational videos that she shared on the internet. So, thought of trying to contact her one day and to my surprise she was very much reciprocating and soon we became friends.
Without any delay the consultation sessions started. She took time to sit down and analyze my lifestyle and enquired me about my daily routine right from the time I woke up till I went back to the bed, with exact real time clock timings. And she was happy that I spent around 20 minutes daily for some minor physical work outs and I was proud of myself for that too.
WHEN LIFE GIVER TENDS TO TAKE AWAY THE LIVELINESS…
Again when scrutinized deeply what she diagnosed, she said, was as expected by her. But for me that really was a new piece of knowledge. The villain of my life was nothing but MY FOOD! The basic reason for survival had now become the basic cause for the arrival of my new uninvited guests, the Lifestyle Disorders.
She listed a whole lot of wrong, unscientific eating habits which I had incorporated within a short period of time. Some of them where actually devastating to believe. And my sedentary kind of job and life routines took charge of the rest of the stage.
SOME OF MY MAJOR FLAWS…
Hot, steaming, spicy pizza is my favourite and after having that, to kill the hot feel, I would drown my self into a huge mug of chilled banana milkshake.
She told me that having hot and cold foods, one after the other is a cruelty on the digestive system. More over bananas with milk was another disaster.
Then on hot summer nights, I usually gulped in tumblers of chilled curd with pickled white rice. This, she said was again torturous on the gut and rather taking it for longer periods would definitely send an invite to either heart diseases or severe skin ailments. In short, both curd at night and again curd with pickle as she said, were one of the worst combinations.
So, as I continued unrolling my dietary habits, she kept on finding out flaws in them. Finally, I somehow took leave from her and reached home, totally lost and kind of depressed. But here I couldn’t find a solution for myself. Then, I made my mind to write to her and then gathered the courage to pen down the real state of my mind.
I WROTE –
“You have been an excellent doctor, rather a logical health consultant and moreover a great friend to me. But what we talked over in our last conversation has kind of pushed me down into depression.
Thinking that way, if I try to follow you, I actually have nothing to eat in this world and if I don’t,I am offering myself to become a bag of diseases in coming years, which obviously is not what I can opt for. So, help me please if you could and sorry if I’m being troublesome.
THE MOST AWAITED REPLY
This letter bounced back with a crucial reply into my mailbox, which turned out to be a turning point of my life. Understanding and imbibing Ayurveda as an Ayurvedic professional would do, was not possible for a common man like me. But don’t you think that every man on this earth has the right to live a proper holistic life, a life as per the principles of this great science of life.
Yes, definitely and today I can announce proudly that 8 months have passed by. I work in the same atmosphere. But now my body backs me up all the time. My mind is calmer as never before. The reply to this letter contained a very simple trick to be followed for the next 10 months. I would like to reveal the secret so that all those who are reading this could benefit, as I did.
This is a piece of the reply which I got from my friend. She is a true ambassador of Ayurveda but she has unravelled this ancient science to me in such a simple way, that today me, my family and many of my friends are living a life, rather the true life, moving away day by day from this novel Avatar called the LIFESTYLE DISORDERS.
And waiting hopefully for the next task which definitely would be something that could be followed easily and could be made a part of our life thereafter with such comfort and ease, as if we were programmed naturally with this sort of a lifestyle, rejoicing this science of life called Ayurveda every moment we spend on this planet.
THE WONDER WORDS THAT CHANGED ME OVER
2 THINGS AT YOUR BREAKFAST AND FEEL
THE MIRACLE HAPPENING IN YOUR BODY…
Putting it down in the language of Ayurveda…
1. USHNA AAHAARA ( Warm food)
2. SNIGDHA AAHAARA (Unctuous food)
Having a breakfast that is warm and a little bit oily either added externally or possessing some essential oils itself, is actually the best thing you could treat your body with, especially in the morning. And mind you…never ever fall for the so called refined oil. You must go for wholesome oils like coconut oil or olive oil or pure ghee i.e. clarified butter.
THE FIRE WITHIN YOU …
I learnt from the greatest of manuscripts of Ayurveda that there is actually a digestive fire (Agni) that burns down the food we ingest and also that there is a digestive fire at the cellular or molecular level which digests, absorbs and assimilates the nutrients from the food and turn them into a part of our body. So that’s our body which actually is a colony of trillions of cells having different faces and performing different functions in such harmony, just to make us feel alive and healthy.
So, what’s the big deal?
Yeah !!! it really is a big deal. This warm little bowl of breakfast that we relish every morning, kindles this fire.Thus, nurturing each cell of your body like a mother feeds her child.
Not only does the food with these qualities kindle the fire (Agni), this food by itself is easily digestible too.
So, in short, an easily digestible gut friendly, natural food exposes itself to a digestive fire that is already being kindled by this food’s arrival into the tract.
Now that’s a double benefit right!!!
TRAVELING RIGHT FROM THE MOUTH TO THE ANUS, WHO’S THE TRANSPORTER ?
I had always wondered that, though the food gets digested at various phases starting right from the mouth down the food pipe into the stomach, then the intestines and finally expelling the waste products, but who is the transporter ? Who guides the food down the tract?
The answer to this question came looking for me, when this magnificent science called Ayurveda introduced me to one entity that’s considered the superior most, among all. Both inside the body and outside, in the world…. the Vata or Vayu.
It’s Vata, whose normal functioning controls all sorts of movements in the body right from the atomic level. ThisVata though guides each possible movement in the human body, but it’s interesting to know that it has a normal regular route of motion of its own too in every particular cell of the body.
My point ???
So, the food that is warm and unctuous help vata maintain its normal course. There by maintaining all the normal functions of the body. This normal course of vata is so so so important that any disordered state or even a mere imbalance in the normal function of the body has a vitiated vata behind it.
May it be a headache, a common cold or even a constipated gut. So, Ayurveda says… it’s very important to maintain the Vata.
And it could never be simpler than this, just having a tasty, healthy, warm breakfast with a little bit of oil or ghee (clarified butter) in it. You actually rule the entire day of yours in a state of perfect equilibrium and harmony.
This food also has the capacity of mitigating the heavy slime that naturally develops in the gut, in the first phase of digestion as a byproduct of the natural process. Thus, leaving not even the slightest chances of any kind of lethargy or laziness and making your entire day a boom.
Moreover if you look into the macroscopic benefits of such food , it won’t be a wonder if I say that it helps in bodybuilding and holds the capacity of improving the texture and complexion of the skin too.
Never try to unsee your roots…which lie deep in the soils of mother nature…
Though seems diverse and complex but actually the fundamental laws of nature are basically very simple.
You can observe and ascertain this, simply by the fact that from dawn to dusk the entire nature follows a very regular daily regimen working meticulously each second, from the simplest of microbes to gigantic plants and animals. They know their own goods and bads very well, unless and until there is some kind of a human intervention in their lives
We humans though are the superior most beings of the God’s creation, but we are here just trying to find out how and why does the nature works in a particular way for a particular thing?
Just like a little child who tries to figure out everything his parents do as he grows up. So, we are just understanding the nature and not governing it. And exactly is what possibly we can do, other than polluting and deranging it. Am I right?
Don’t you think that if man was not present on the earth, the nature would have worked even more rhythmically, feasting each living cell, being born and grown up in its cradle !!!
So with this little research of mine through one single verse of Charaka Samhita and referring various other Ayurvedic classic creations, rather our treasures of knowledge. Let me sum up this way –
THE ACTION PRINCIPLE
The simple general formula that nature follows is “similar increases similar”. This entire nature runs on this very principle.
The warmth and little bit oily nature of the food opens up the tiny pores in the gut thus, increasing the penetrating power. This food subjects itself to break-down, into minute particles, by kindling the digestive fire, thus increasing and maintain the proper absorption rate.
FINALLY !! PUTTING DOWN THE PROCESS SIMPLY…
• Food that is a bit warm and unctuous enters our mouth mixing up with the saliva.
• It’s warmth and unctuousness helps us to perceive taste more effectively by penetrating easily through the taste receptors and stimulating the nerve endings…
• Thus, in turn sharpening our senses.
• Similarly our gut which actually holds a nervous system of it’s own, recognises that it’s friendly food is there and they work in unison, complementing each other.
• Inducing proper and just sufficient secretion of digestive juices.
• Leading to proper digestion, absorption and assimilation in the body, nurturing our body and mind alike….and creating a state of perfect BLISS and finally keep the lifestyle disorders at bay.
